Communication through the use of telephonic communication systems is an important aspect of modem society. Telephonic networks of various telephonic communication systems have been installed throughout significant portions of the populated areas of the world. Telephonic stations are connected to the telephonic network, such as by a wireline connection or a radio interface. A communication session is formed between two or more of the telephonic stations connected to the telephonic network. The telephonic station at which a call is originated may be referred to as the calling party, and the telephonic station at which the call is to be completed, or terminated, may be referred to as the called party.
In most conventional telephonic communication systems, circuit-switched connections are provided between endpoints, i.e., the calling and called parties, during a communication session. When a circuit-switched connection is formed, a dedicated channel is provided to permit the telephonic communications between the telephonic stations that form the endpoints of the communication sessions. For so long as the connection is maintained, telephonic communications between the calling and called parties are permitted. As the data to be communicated pursuant to the communication session might only be communicated intermittently, the communication capacity of the telephonic communication system may not be fully utilized for much of the communication session. Thus, in general, use of circuit-switched connections results in inefficient utilization of the communication capacity of a telephonic network.
Packet-switched communications, in contrast, are able more efficiently to utilize the communication capacity of a communication system. In a packet-based communication system, a common data path can be shared by two or more separate communication sessions. Because packet-formatted data can be communicated during discrete intervals, the same data path can be utilized during separate time periods to communicate packet-formatted data for different communication sessions. More efficient utilization of the communication capacity of the communication system in which the packet-based communication scheme is implemented is thereby possible.
Various packet formatting protocols are used when forming and sending data packets formed of digital data bits. One protocol scheme, the Internet protocol (IP) is regularly utilized in many different communication systems and communication applications. Communication devices constructed to send, receive, transport, and operate upon IP-formatted data can be configured together in a communication system to provide for the communication of IP-formatted data.
The Internet is an example of a packet-based communication system. Data communicated by way of the Internet is formatted into packets and sent during discrete intervals. Typically, the packets are IP-formatted and include a header portion and a payload portion. The header portion contains the identity of the intended destination of the packet in the form of an IP address that identifies the device to which the data packets are to be delivered.
Computer stations connected to conventional packet data networks, such as the Internet, are sometimes configured to provide telephonic communication. A call is routed through the packet data network, and the data that is communicated pursuant to a telephonic communication session can be formed of voice, as well as other, data. In this situation, the computer station that is being used as a telephonic endpoint forms a telephonic station.
With these types of currently existing communication systems, businesses with multiple agents available to respond to incoming calls from customers typically forward the calls to the agents using manual dispatching or based on an assumed fixed location for the agent. Thus, either a dispatcher is used to determine in some manner which agent is to receive the call or an automatic dispatch may be provided based on the assumed fixed location.
Accordingly, while manual routing of the incoming calls is possible, such manual procedures are prone to human error. And, manual routing is inherently inefficient and, as a result, also costly.
A manner by which to route the incoming calls in a more efficient manner would therefore be advantageous.
It is in light of this background information related to communications in a telephone communication system that the significant improvements of the present invention have evolved.